The -ber months are in, and you know what that means – the holiday season is upon us! With COVID-19 lockdowns restricting consumers from doing their shopping in-store, the demand for online shopping options is bigger than ever.
As the "new normal" has opened the market's eyes to new shopping opportunities online, businesses like yours are in a great position to take advantage.
Yet how prepared are you for the holiday rush, given the expected “new normal” in e-commerce? Here are a few tips on how you can ramp up your business in time for the holidays – allowing you to meet rising demand despite restricted movement.
Make sure your online pages are attractive and updated. Online customers have high standards, and are not afraid to leave online pages that fail to meet them. A survey by Adobe found that 38% of online shoppers tend to leave unattractively-designed or hard-to-use ecommerce websites.
This is why it's important to keep your online platforms engaging – whether we're talking about websites, social media accounts, etc. Make sure your online page is attractive and easy to use, in order to attract more customers. Keep fresh content up front where repeat visitors can easily see them, and create visually-appealing splash panels that will draw your visitors in right from the front page.
Ensure that your product pages are accurate and transparent. In relation to the item above, your online pages must also be attractive and have accurate descriptions.
Avoid forcing people to scour for important details like the product price and details (replying "PM sent" to inquiries like that is a no-no). Increase the likelihood of selling by putting a call to action button, or any interactive element that allows them to act on the page that’s piqued their interest (helping them "add to cart", for instance).
Keep your inventory up-to-date. Avoid product shortages by checking your inventory and ensure that you have enough products (especially your bestsellers) to last you throughout the holidays.
Ideally, you should have a way to keep tabs on your inventory in real time – giving you up-to-the-minute information on how much stock you have, how many orders are in play and when you’ll need to replenish. If this feels like a lot of work, you can delegate this to a reliable logistics partner to handle this for you.
Be responsive. You'll most likely be encountering a lot of inquiries – so make sure you are ready to respond, or delegate someone to answer all of them! Making your customers feel valued is a good way of retaining them.
A survey by Social Habit found that 32% of customers reaching out via social media expect a response within 30 minutes, and 42% expect one within an hour’s time. If you’re equipped to respond this quickly, you can expect customer satisfaction to rise, and drop accordingly the longer you wait to respond.
Choose a reliable logistics partner. To help you deliver all your orders on time with less worry, choose a logistics partner that will oversee your logistics operation. This will let you focus on your other priorities - let your logistics partner handle the rest.
MyEntrego is your one-stop solution to smoothing out your logistics: a technology-driven, end-to-end fulfillment and logistics provider in the Philippines that enables online sellers like you to fulfill your promise to customers through effective business solutions.
By leveraging MyEntrego’s extensive experience in nationwide logistics operations, you can better carry out the courier and shipping requirements of your online business – letting you accommodate more orders even during the pandemic and holiday rush.
